Ukrainian First League

Ukrainian First League
Country  Ukraine
Founded 1991
Number of teams 16
Level on pyramid 2
Promotion to Ukrainian Premier League
Relegation to Ukrainian Second League
Domestic cup(s) Ukrainian Cup
Current champions FC Zirka Kirovohrad
(2015–16)
Most championships 3 – FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv, FC Hoverla Uzhhorod, FC Zirka Kirovohrad
Most capped player 429 – Andriy Tsvik (2014)
Top goalscorer 118 – Vadym Plotnikov (2013)
Website Official site
2016–17 Ukrainian First League

The Persha Liha (Ukrainian: Перша ліга) or Ukrainian First League is a football league in Ukraine and the second tier of national football competitions. Members of the league also participate in the Ukrainian Cup. Unlike the Ukrainian Premier League, Persha Liha does not conduct a parallel tournament for junior teams of its clubs.

History

The very first round of games that took place for this league was on March 14, 1992. The league itself was organized just a few months before that and consisted mostly of those clubs that previously competed in the Soviet Second League (see Ukrainian Soviet competitions). To the league were also added some second squads of the Vyshcha Liha clubs and the best performers of the Soviet amateur level of competition, KFK (Fitness clubs). The Persha Liha (First League) is lower than the Vyscha Liha (Supreme League) (currently known as the Ukrainian Premier League) and is the second division of the Ukrainian professional football league system.

The First League was incorporated into the PFL organization that combined all the football leagues of non-amateur clubs (Supreme, First, and Second). On May 26, 1996 the Constituent Conference of non-amateur clubs took place which created the professional league, and confirmed its statute as well as its administration. Most of the clubs that had previously participated in the Ukrainian football league competitions were reorganized as professional, a process that actually started in the late 1980s. On July 17 the professional league signed an agreement with several other national football organizations to organize competitions among the professional clubs (its members). According to the newspaper Halychyna (Ivano-Frankivsk) the annual budget of league's clubs varied between 6 mln to 30 mln hryvnias in 2010.[1][2]

The League officially became the top league of the Professional Football League (PFL) from April 15, 2008 when the Ukrainian Premier League reorganized itself into a self-governed entity. Usually the top two teams from the First League are promoted to the Premier League, while the two lowest teams from the Premier League are demoted to the First League. Because each club is only allowed to be represented with a single squad per each league, the second squad's promotion often is voided, thus, allowing the promotion of the third placed club during a season. One of the most successful second squads is of Dynamo Kyiv (FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv).

Format of competition

During its short history the number of members in the league has fluctuated. However, in recent years it has more or less stabilized at 18. In its first years the league consisted of 20 or more participants. Later there was an idea to decrease the number of members in all leagues in order to improve the quality of competition. The amount of relegated clubs was changing also almost annually and several times reaching up to five. Since the latest reorganization of the Second League it has remained at two clubs being demoted. For the 2010-11 season it was decided to return to the three club relegation principal involving relegation play-offs. The relegation or promotion play-offs were previously usually organized under unforeseen circumstances such as a team's withdrawal from the league and often were not scheduled until after the season had concluded. Since the turn of the millennium the frequency of withdrawals in the First League has increased among the competing clubs. Concurrently with this, the league now applies a stricter approach to every club's financial situation and support in order to participate at this level and avoid those withdrawals during the season. Since the 2009-10 season the First League has started to broadcast select matches over the internet in order to increase its popularity.

The most successful club in the league is the second squad of Dynamo Kyiv. Out of non-second squads the most successful are Zakarpattya Uzhhorod (two 1st place and two 2nds) and Zirka Kirovohrad (two 1st places). Zirka, however, went through some reorganizations in the 2000s after going into bankruptcy. A couple of seasons afterwards it returned to the competitions. Pointswise over the whole history the other two teams that follow Dynamo-2 Kyiv are Naftovyk Okhtyrka and Stal Alchevsk. The second squad of the militiamen (Dynamo) is the only team that has participated in every single season in the Ukrainian First League. Naftovyk Okhtyrka and Stal Alchevsk have missed two and three seasons respectively.

Statistics

Winners by year

Promoted teams are in bold.

SeasonGroupChampionRunner-Up3rd Position
1992 A Veres Rivne Pryladyst Mukacheve Polihraftekhnika Oleksandria
B Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih Metalurh Nikopol Artania Ochakiv
1992–93 Nyva Vinnytsia Temp Shepetivka Naftovyk Okhtyrka
1993–94 Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk Evis Mykolaiv Polihraftekhnika Oleksandria
1994–95 Zirka-NIBAS Kirovohrad CSKA-Borysfen Boryspil Metalurh Nikopol
1995–96 Vorskla Poltava Bukovyna Chernivtsi Stal Alchevsk
1996–97 Metalurh Donetsk Dynamo-2 Kyiv Metalurh Mariupol
1997–98 SC Mykolaiv Dynamo-2 Kyiv Metalist Kharkiv
1998–99 Dynamo-2 Kyiv Chornomorets Odessa Torpedo Zaporizhia
1999–00 Dynamo-2 Kyiv Stal Alchevsk FC Cherkasy
2000–01 Dynamo-2 Kyiv Zakarpattia Uzhhorod Polihraftekhnika Oleksandria
2001–02 SC Volyn-1 Lutsk Chornomorets Odessa Obolon Kyiv
2002–03 Zirka Kirovohrad Borysfen Boryspil Dynamo-2 Kyiv
2003–04 Zakarpattia Uzhhorod Metalist Kharkiv Naftovyk Okhtyrka
2004–05 Stal Alchevsk Arsenal Kharkiv Zorya Luhansk
2005–06 Zorya Luhansk Karpaty Lviv Obolon Kyiv
2006–07 Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka Zakarpattia Uzhhorod Obolon Kyiv
2007–08 Illichivets Mariupol FC Lviv Obolon Kyiv
2008–09 Zakarpattia Uzhhorod Obolon Kyiv PFC Oleksandria
2009–10 PFC Sevastopol Volyn Lutsk Stal Alchevsk
2010–11 PFC Oleksandria Chornomorets Odesa Stal Alchevsk
2011–12 Hoverla-Zakarpattia Uzhhorod Metalurh Zaporizhya FC Sevastopol
2012–13 FC Sevastopol Stal Alchevsk[3] PFC Oleksandria[4]
2013–14 FC Olimpik Donetsk PFC Oleksandria[4] Stal Alchevsk
2014–15 FC Oleksandriya Stal Dniprodzerzhynsk Hirnyk-Sport Komsomolsk
2015–16 Zirka Kirovohrad Cherkaskyi Dnipro Obolon-Brovar Kyiv
2016–17

All winners

Club Winner Runners-Up 3rd Position Seasons Won
Dynamo-2 Kyiv 3 2 1 1998–99, 1999–00, 2000–01
Hoverla-Zakarpattia Uzhhorod 3 2 0 2003–04, 2008–09, 2011–12
Zirka Kirovohrad 3 0 0 1994–95, 2002–03, 2015–16
FC Oleksandriya 2 1 5 2010–11, 2014–15
FC Sevastopol 2 0 1 2009–10, 2012–13
Stal Alchevsk 1 2 4 2004–05
Illichivets Mariupol 1 1 1 2007–08
Mykolaiv 1 1 0 1997–98
Volyn Lutsk 1 1 0 2001–02
Naftovyk-Ukrnafta Okhtyrka 1 0 2 2006–07
Zorya Luhansk 1 0 1 2005–06
FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih 1 0 0 1992 (group winner)
FC Veres Rivne 1 0 0 1992 (group winner)
PFC Nyva Vinnytsia 1 0 0 1992–93
FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk 1 0 0 1993–94
FC Vorskla Poltava 1 0 0 1995–96
FC Metalurh Donetsk 1 0 0 1996–97
FC Olimpik Donetsk 1 0 0 2013–14

Notes:

  indicates that the club does not have professional status.
  indicates that the club currently plays in the league.

All-time table

Included all clubs that played over five seasons (incomplete)

TeamSeasonsGPWDLGSGAPtsAchievement
Dynamo-2 Kyiv 21 762 365 187 210 1190 733 1282 champion
Stal Alchevsk 18 658 320 146 192 967 690 1106 champion
Naftovyk Okhtyrka 18 664 307 150 207 915 687 1071 champion
Olexandria 15 558 259 139 160 755 517 916 champion
Zakarpattia Uzhhorod 14 516 230 99 187 627 626 789 champion
Mykolaiv 13 480 207 109 164 589 477 730 champion
Elektrometalurh-NZF Nikopol 11 418 183 71 164 498 506 620 vice-champion
Volyn Lutsk 10 368 178 61 129 513 417 595 champion
Polissya Zhytomyr 12 444 153 93 198 461 579 552 4th
CSKA Kyiv 13 464 153 88 223 433 586 547 5th
Nyva Vinnytsia 11 394 146 94 154 390 384 532 champion
Dnipro Cherkasy 11 416 148 86 182 458 540 530 3rd
Lviv 11 400 138 78 184 418 550 492 vice-champion
Karpaty-2 Lviv 9 338 129 80 129 420 382 467 5th
Spartak Sumy 10 372 129 77 166 400 475 464 9th
Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk 9 320 128 76 116 369 348 460 champion
Desna Chernihiv 9 326 108 79 139 348 404 403 4th
Shakhtar-2 Donetsk 9 302 110 58 134 362 393 388 4th
Podillya Khmelnytskyi 7 274 100 79 95 401 287 379 4th
Bukovyna Chernivtsi 7 278 106 60 112 308 318 378 vice-champion
Obolon Kyiv 5 208 109 42 57 311 206 369 vice-champion
Khimik Severodonetsk 7 278 93 60 125 332 379 339 7th
Vorskla Poltava 5 190 97 36 57 261 208 327 champion
Krymteplytsia Molodizhne 6 208 94 53 61 280 219 258 5th
Helios Kharkiv 6 180 36 44 100 149 275 129 9th
Enerhetyk Burshtyn 6 180 28 39 113 122 302 100 12th
Zirka Kirovohrad 5 120 25 33 62 94 156 83 12th
Metalist Kharkiv 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Chornomorets Odessa 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Zorya Luhansk 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Krystal Chortkiv 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
SK Odessa 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Shakhtar Makiivka 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Illichivets Mariupol 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th
Borysfen Boryspil 5 146 23 35 88 96 230 81 12th

Notes:

References

  1. ↑ Last one and half months worth several years (Ukrainian)
  2. ↑ [http://www.galychyna.if.ua/index.php?id=single&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[calendarYear]=2010&tx_ttnews[calendarMonth]=8&tx_ttnews[startingPoint]=15&tx_ttnews[recursion]=250&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=11829&tx_ttnews[pointer]=0&tx_ttnews[mode]=1&tx_ttnews[backPid]=24 Original source on August 19, 2010 by Bohdan Biletsky] (Ukrainian)
  3. ↑ "FC Stal refuses to participate in Ukrainian Premier League". Interfax-Ukraine. 13 June 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 "In Ukrainian Premier League will be 14 teams: Oleksandriya do not need the elite division". LB. 2 June 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014.


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